Telerik.Web.UI Version upgrade Compatibility issue

[Adeel]

Hello team Telerik,

I am using your trial version and planning to renew my licence but i am facing some compatibility issues after using the trial version.
My Previous Version of Telerik.Web.UI.dll = 2008 3.1314.20
Version of trial Telerik.Web.UI.dll = 2014.2.724.40

Now the problem is that in my previous dll i am using skins like 'default2006' , 'skyblue' etc etc for my controls and those were working fine but as i updated the trial version dll in my project i am getting the error regarding these skins because these are not in the new version. Are your components not backward compatible?
if not then how can i fix the error that i am getting (by changing the previous skins with the new one on every screen?)

Secondly, I have used some custom skins while i was using the previous version of dll but as i updated the trail version the custom skins are not working also?
my second question is that does newer version supports custom control skins? if yes the Give me an example where a custom skin is used on a control.

My third question is that What EnableEmbeddedskins do? and keeping in mind the above two scenarios how can i use it?
(i have seen a post where u people have suggested to disable it in web.config and then enabled it for only specific screen where control is using SKIN.is it the only way to use it? going on every screen with skin attribute in it and EnableEmbededSkins= true for that control? ) Please give me an early response so that i can buy the licence as soon as possible...

[Marin Bratanov]

Hello,

The old version you have is part of the old suite dubbed "RadControls for ASP Classic" which has not been supported since 2009. The current suite, "UI for ASP.NET AJAX", while based on them, is entirely new in terms of plaforms and concepts and thus, there are a lot of changes. We do try to keep backwards compatibility but sometimes changes are needed. They are inevitable when we changed platforms 7 years ago. We do try to keep the current suite in a stable state with as little changes as possible.

Some of the old skins are not available anymore. You can find the full list in the online demos where a skin chooser is available or here: http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/introduction-how-skins-work.html. You can take a look at the demos to see which of the current ones are closest to your needs to switch to them. You can also set the skin globally from the web.config for all controls: http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/introduction-skin-registration.html (web.config registration is shown at the end).

Custom skins can be used with the current suite and this article explains the basics: http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/introduction-create-custom-skin.html. Each control has an article that explains details, for example: http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/tooltip-appearance-creating-custom-skin.html. This article also explains that you need to set the EnableEmbeddedSkins to false to use custom skins. How exactly you are going to set this property and the Skin property of the control depends on your site and preferences, there is no silver bullet for this choice.

There has been a major change in Q1 2009 to unify the skinning approach in all controls and this causes old custom skins to have some issues. Thus, I advise that you go through the following resources to resolve that:

• http://blogs.telerik.com/aspnet-ajax/posts/09-03-20/using-pre-q1-2009-skins-with-q1-2009.aspx - more details on the skinning change and a tool that can help with migration
  
• http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/grid-changes-and-backward-compatibility.html - on changes in Q1 2009 when the skinning was improved
  
• http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/dock-changes-and-backward-compatibility.html - on the skinning change in RadDock
  
• http://stylebuilder.telerik.com/ - this tool can help you recreate the custom skins from scratch, especially if only some coloring was changed
  
  

I hope this helps you migrate the customizations you have.

I would also like to use this opportunity to strongly advise that you upgrade as often as possible (e.g., with every service pack release). This minimizes changes that you may need to tackle and also provides you with the latest fixes, improvements and new features/controls.

Generally, when upgrading I would suggest having those resources in mind:

• http://www.telerik.com/support/whats-new/aspnet-ajax/release-history - the release notes for the controls. I suggest going through them for the versions you go over to know what has happened.
  
• http://www.telerik.com/forums/known-issues-and-important-changes - this is where important changes are also posted, with more details than in the release notes

You may also find this blog post useful when upgrading: http://blogs.telerik.com/aspnet-ajax/posts/12-12-21/upgrade-the-version-of-your-telerik-asp.net-controls-in-6-easy-steps.   

Also, in case you are using the "Classic" suite of controls, you may find articles like this one useful: http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/editor-migration-from-radeditor-classic-to-radeditor-prometheus.html.

Regards, Marin Bratanov
Telerik

 

 

[Adeel]

Thanks for the response,

so it means i have to replace privious skins with the new one.in regrd to this conclusion if i set EnableEmbededSkins = true in my web.config and also if i set skin = Silk in my web.config all the controls with embeded skins will be assigned silk skin?

at the same time i have custom skins so for them i have to set EnableEmbeded skins = false but by this above scenario will not work . so how i can i do both EmbededSkins and CustomSkins with minimum possible changes in my code.
can both entries can be done in web.config by some method. i cant change my code ?

[Adeel]

And also can i use both of your assemblies simultaneously? so that old components keep on running on old assembly and new components run on new assembly?
if yes, how can i use both assemblies (Telerik.Web.Ui)

[Marin Bratanov]

Hi,

You can set the most common setting for the Skin and EnableEmbeddedSkins in the web.config.

You can then explicitly change it for controls that need custom skins in their definitions. Or, you can use ASP Themes and skinID to set that for a more global set of controls.

There is no way to combine two application-scope settings with different values. One of them has to be entered manually where needed by the developer.

On using the old .NET2 assemblies together with the Telerik.Web.UI assemblies - I strongly advise against this because I cannot guarantee where namespaces (both on the client or on the server) will match and cause ambiguity or overriding.

You can only use one version of a given .NET assembly in the project and this also applies to our controls. You can reference only one version of the Telerik.Web.UI assembly and it has to match the one of the Telerik.Web.UI.Skins and Telerik.Web.Design assemblies.


Regards,

Marin Bratanov
Telerik

 

 

[Adeel]

Hello,
I have succeeded in using both the DLLs (old and new) in my Project.
I placed both assemblies in GAC , then i registered old assembly in my web.config.
i only used newer assembly on the page where i want to use the new RAD Control that is not present in old by registering manually the newer version of assembly on top of aspx.
Now all my application is running by old assembly and where i want to use the new version i register it manually on that page Hurrrraa!!!
By the way thanks for your time and do inform me in your reply if there is any thing i need to know about the above mentioned scenario or a seggestion.
 

[Marin Bratanov]

Hi Adeel,

What I want to stress is that we do not support such a scenario and we cannot guarantee there will be no issues, script overrides, errors or server namespace/class ambiguities.


Regards,

Marin Bratanov
Telerik

 

 

[Chanan Zass]

Hello Adeel,

 

I've discovered this forum post today, and would like to ask how exactly you managed to call the new Telerik.Web.UI.Skins.dll in an individual page. What code was used to accomplish that?

We have similar problems, where the company would like to continue using obsolete skins, except in newer pages.

We would appreciate any help.

Many thanks.

 

[Rumen]

Hi there,

Your can download the source code of the latest version (Telerik_UI_for_ASP.NET_AJAX_2018_1_117_Source.zip), and to manually add the new (old obsolete) skins to the Telerik.Web.UI.Skins folder and to build your own Telerik.Web.UI.Skins.dll assembly.  You can find more information at the documentation: How to load skins from external assemblies.

Best regards,
Rumen
Progress Telerik